Sunday, June 7, 2009

Quotes from Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community

1. “Public schools in particular have often promoted such “normalizing” conceptualizations of community that are based on defining a cultural center or “norm” and positioning class, gender, race, and sexual Others at the margins.” The author writes about how schools assign positions of privilege and use the phrase “ normal” to describe the usual people and positions of privilege; whites, males ,heterosexuals, and the middle class. He goes on to say that schools use grouping and curriculum practices to minimize the voices of “Others”, but that this notion of marginalization is being challenged by these very people, along with support from communities ,in very serious ways.

2. “ Multicultural education is reconceptualized in terms of crossing or rupturing the borders that separate individuals into neat categories and camps.” The author writes about how we have to look at ourselves as a combination of all the things, the “multiple subject positions ( class, race, gender, sexuality, etc.) that make us the human beings we are and how this will enable us to view others as multifaceted , and not focus on just one aspect of an individual.

3. “ Fourth, it also means that I am inextricably involved in multiple cultural struggles rather than merely one.” The author states that is important that multicultural education includes giving young people a sense of the interconnectedness between identity and culture and to do so will create a sense of community that will further a world built on equity for everyone.
Carlson sees the public schools as having a responsibility to educate young straight men about how they have come to see gay men and women as Others.

1 comment:

  1. The quotes you picked really capture the key issues that Carlson takes on! Do you see these issues also connecting to other authors we have read?

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